Reviews psychometric approaches to problems of modeling student achievement (the student model) within intelligent tutoring systems (ITS). A number of cognitively oriented psychometric approaches, including latent-trait models, statistical pattern recognition methods, and causal probabilistic networks are described and discussed within the current…

Discussion of school effectiveness, achievement outcomes, and sociocultural influences focuses on a study of Nigerian high school students that was conducted to determine whether or not instruction based on a sociocultural model could significantly alter students' attitudes toward learning and achievement in science. (51 references) (LRW)